After meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin for the third time in Saint Petersburg over the weekend, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said a “permanent” peace deal for Ukraine was finally “taking shape” as Washington now has a good idea of what Moscow wants in exchange for restoring long-term stability in the region.
“This is the third meeting I’ve had with [Putin]. This last meeting lasted close to five hours. … And towards the end, we actually came up with … what Putin’s request is to have a permanent peace here,” Witkoff said during an interview with Fox News on Monday, April 14th.
According to the diplomat, Russia’s preferred deal involves the “so-called five territories” that have been annexed by Russia, such as Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts. However, as the currently occupied territories do not include the entirety of these oblasts and it’s unreasonable to expect the U.S. to agree on behalf of Ukraine to hand over the remaining parts, any ceasefire deal would most probably freeze the frontlines in their current positions.
That’s why Witkoff went on to state that there’s “much more” to the prospective deal, including “security protocols” and “a lot” of additional details. “It’s a complicated situation rooted in some real problematic things happening between the two countries. [But] I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very important for the world at large,” the U.S. envoy said.
Furthermore, what makes Witkoff the most hopeful that a diplomatic resolution might be at arm’s reach is that Putin signaled readiness to explore “some very compelling commercial opportunities” with the U.S. in exchange for peace that could “give real stability to the region.”
“Partnerships create stability,” Witkoff underlined.
At the same time, the meeting was overshadowed by Russia’s double ballistic missile strike on the city center of Sumy, northeast Ukraine, which killed three dozen civilians and wounded over a hundred more on Palm Sunday, according to Ukrainian officials.
The targeting of civilians was heavily condemned by several senior White House officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukraine special envoy Keith Kellogg. The two diplomats reportedly urged President Trump to be more skeptical about Putin’s willingness to end the war and put more pressure on Moscow to start negotiating “more seriously.”
Rubio and Kellogg are reportedly pushing for more U.S. sanctions on Moscow, which could include targeting Russia’s financial and energy sectors. “We will know soon enough… whether Russia is serious about peace,” Rubio stated recently. “It would be good for the world if that war ended, but obviously we have to test that proposition.”
Trump appears to be still on the fence, waiting to see whether Witkoff’s talks produce results in a reasonable timeframe. “I want to stop the killing, and I think we’re doing well in that regard. I think you’ll have some very good proposals very soon,” the president said on Monday.
